


damned if i do ya

by milkovichh



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Boys In Love, Dates, Fluff, M/M, mature for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 07:48:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11077173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkovichh/pseuds/milkovichh
Summary: It had been mentioned a few times: going on a date. Broke, and not nearly decent enough for a real date, Mickey tries something else.





	damned if i do ya

After everything the pair had been through, it was difficult to believe that Ian and Mickey had never been on a date. The younger had mentioned it, drunk, once, when shit was bad, and their plan for the drunken Sizzler’s date had been ruined. So much happened at once after Ian got arrested that night, that they didn’t return to the thought once in their madness of bipolar, prison, breaking up, and such. While many thought it impossible for them to have been together for so long and never be on a date, those who knew them saw that the way their relationship worked quite well. Mickey had never been very romantic to begin with, and Ian became less so as he slipped out of his dreamy younger teen years, where he’d hope Mickey would turn around after robbing the store and suddenly want to date and do all this cutesy boyfriend stuff. 

  They were hardly better now in the sense of being overly-loving outwardly. However, things had gotten so much better since Ian got stable on his medication and Mickey wasn’t getting himself locked up for attempted murder. Ian stayed with the Gallaghers, still, since they feared something happening still yet, but most nights he found himself curled up with Mickey, regardless of who’s house it was. Mickey, after coming out, was much more comfortable with simple things such as kissing in front of others, and even holding hands when they went to the diner together, or had a movie night with the Gallagher clan. Sometimes, on very good days, he’d even say he loved the redhead, though the occurance was still very rare. While it by far did not resemble other people’s relationships, it worked, and it worked pretty damn well.

  Factors of their relationship aside, the whole ‘date’ thing had been long-buried until it started coming up again, suddenly as if everyone had gotten the idea at once. It started when he came stumbling down the stairs after spending the night with Ian, said boy still asleep since his meds did that sometimes, to find only Fiona and V at the table. He’d vow to say it was probably still early, clad in his tank top and boxers, as he made himself coffee and offered the girls a mug each if they wanted (this had also happened somewhere along the line, becoming comfortable with Ian’s family in a domestic way again).

  After he had three mugs of coffee done, he sat at the table with the girls. It was comfortable, though held an unusual air to it, as it always did when Ian wasn’t in the room at the same time.

  “Is Ian alright?” Fiona asked, just as she did every time she saw Mickey before Ian in a morning. While she had accepted the thug back into their lives, with a kind smile and telling Ian this was okay as long as he was happy, she still worried about the ginger.

  “Yeah, still sleepin’. Think the meds are just havin’ a bit of a knock on him again. Should be fine, said it’s a side effect or whatever.”

  Fiona nodded, and V sipped her coffee, since they both trusted Mickey with knowledge of drugs and Ian. After a thoughtful drink, V raised a brow, “You ever taken him on a date?”

  “What?”

  “A date,” she repeated, more exaggerated. “Ever been on a date? With Ian?”

  Mickey thought about it quickly. It seemed like such bullshit that they _hadn’t_ been on a date, and still nothing came to mind for when they had. Sure, they’d planned little moments for themselves, but it was all too casual, hanging out, to be considered a real date. “Don’t think so. Why?”

  Fiona’s mouth dropped open a little, and V’s eyebrows rose higher. Confused, Mickey demanded ‘what?!’ before he got his answer from the eldest Gallagher. “You guys have been together for so long! How have you not been on a date?”

  “We just haven’t, why’s it mean so fuckin’ much to you?”

  There wasn’t any threat to his words, just a casual question, and it seemed to silence them into drinking their coffee. Happily, Mickey thought the conversation was over, until Fiona piped up again. “You should do somethin’. Ya know, take him out somewhere nice. He’d love it.”

 

The second time it was mentioned, it was with Mandy and Debbie. Mickey was in his own house — still, even after Terry told him to get out — drinking a beer at the table and sorting through money. He had the TV on in the living room for background noise, and his sister and Debbie in the kitchen baking or whatever while they gossiped. It was a quiet day, Ian off at work in the little coffee shop job he’d managed to get, and the boys out on some kinda drug run or something. Mickey hadn’t really been listening to the girls, his focus on the numbers stacking up in his head, until they giggled and addressed him.

  “Mick, have you ever been on a date?”

  “Have I ever wha— of course I’ve been on a fuckin’ date,” he defended, despite the lack of truth. He had never been on a real date, like at a nice restaurant or whatever.

  “No, like, with my brother,” Debbie pitched.

  “The fuck you wanna know for?”

  “Some guy asked her out, and she wants to know what it’s like from their perspective, dickhead,” Mandy provided, flipping him off before turning back around to knead at the mess she’d made of flour and dough.

  “I don’t fuckin’ know—”

  “Wait, you _have_ been on a date with Ian, right?” Debbie had folded her arms, arching a brow at him that kind of reminded him of his boyfriend when he was trying to get something out of Mickey. It was a weird resemblance, though a cute one, in a way, since Mickey had always been closest to Debbie. Fuckin’ redheaded Gallaghers always weaved their way into his heart first, and then the rest. 

  “I—” Mickey’s eyebrows furrowed, thinking again. He’d almost forgotten the conversation with Fiona and V, but it came back and he frowned. “No.”

  “What?” Debbie almost screeched, and Mandy turned back around looking surprised. Mickey flinched, cursing. “You haven’t been on a date with him?”

  “I thought we just established that!”

  “How?!” she stressed. “Oh my god, you have to take him on a date!”

  “Why the fuck do I have to?”

  “Because he’d love it, Mickey!” she basically echoed her sister. “It’d make him happy!”

  Mickey groaned, causing Mandy to snigger. Bitch.

 

The final time someone told him to take Ian on a date, he’d had enough of hearing it. When the final person — Carl, of everyone — told him that he had to if he wanted to get laid more often, he should do a date or buy Ian something. He also bragged that it got him mad fuckin’ pussy, but Mickey didn’t want to hear it. By the time Carl was talking about a girl he’d been going for, Mickey was already thinking about this date that seemed inevitable otherwise.

  Since he didn’t have the money, nor the patience or charisma, to take Ian to a fancy place and eat expensive lobster from the Northside, he had to improvise. The family had made it pretty clear that it should be more formal than lazily making out on the couch to an empty house (which, by the way, Mickey saw as a perfect date), and that he had to wear something nicer than a tank top (again, he saw no problem with), so he was a little stumped for a while. Ian had picked up a little on how intently Mickey would listen whenever he said ‘I’d love ...’ as if it’d be some massive deal, or the way his shorter boyfriend would sit in a daze when they were together, like he was doing a puzzle in his head. He figured he was just thinking about some kind of work thing, since he was doing quite a lot of that recently. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him ... or, make him excite like a puppy, in this case.

 

The actual ‘date’ night came on a Friday. Mickey had planned this very specifically, his nerves working up on making this perfect for Ian. After all this time, the ginger still gave him a stupid fluttery feeling in his chest, the one that made him want to be more than he was to make Ian happy. After Ian cheated on him, he’d always been a little anxious about how the other saw him, and tonight he wanted to make the date lovely, even if he was stepping out of his comfort zone to do so. It’d be good for both of them — a cute Friday night ‘date’ and then three days off together. Ian already had the weekend off, and Mickey had made a couple calls to free up Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for his boyfriend. 

  He’d been preparing for the past couple days, when Ian was out and he was home. He’d been practicing his cooking when everyone was gone, and pretend batty Sheila dropped it off or somethin’ to get people to try it and see how they’d react. He’d gone to the extent of washing his skinniest jeans, and button down black top, then ironing them with Fiona’s help, and then went to the store and bought some higher quality movies than they usually had, and even some god damn scented candles. Today, with Ian out and going to Fiona’s to change before he’d be here at six, Mickey had cleaned the Milkovich household from top to fuckin’ boton, picking up cigarette stubs, hoovering dirt and shit from the carpet that actually was a different color to what it looked when covered in at least twenty year’s grime, wiping down the table and kitchen, spraying some nicer smelling stuff on couch cushions, that he cleaned, so they didn’t stink of years of sex, drugs and vomit, and changed the sheets of their — yes, it was theirs — bed in the hopes that their date would go well enough.

  The lasagna was in the oven, all made and layered by Mickey himself — and the expensive alcohol sat in the fridge. In the time he would have typically spent waiting around nervously, he showered with some fancy-smellin’ shit, changed and slicked his hair back. Once that was done, the oven was beeping and he was left to dish out the best lasagna he’d ever seen, if he did say so himself. Really, it was pretty fuckin’ impressive, he thought proudly.

  Finally, the door clicked and the lanky redhead he called his boyfriend was coming in to the dim living room and kitchen, the light from the candles setting a soft atmosphere for their date. Mickey went to the door to greet him with a quick kiss, watching smugly as Ian checked him out. “Hey, why you all dressed up, gorgeous?”

  Resisting the urge to both blush and tell Ian to stop calling him that (since this was not the first time), Mickey remembered the key of this whole thing. Romance. So he sucked it up, and went on with his reason. “Well, been thinkin’. We never actually went on a date, and we’d be out of place in a fuckin’ restraunt, so I made dinner. Cleared the house, wanted a night to ourselves. A date.”

  The older male chewed his bottom lip as he saw Ian process the words. The ginger then grinned and pulled him in by his hips for another kiss, more passionate. “That’s adorable.”

  “Fuck off,” Mickey swatted his hands away. “I didn’t make dinner for it to go to waste while we make out in the fuckin’ doorway.”

  Even with his shit-eating smile, Ian let him go and followed him, green eyes widening at the house. It had a mood to it, holding less depressing violence and adding a more home-like and romantic vibe. The candles were lit, everything clean and organised in a way that showed there was effort made, and Ian couldn’t help but think about how great it’d be to come home to Mickey, living together, every day, even if it wasn’t like this all the time. He really missed living in the same home as his boyfriend, being able to kiss him before he went to do a scam, or order takeout, and playfully wrestle in their underwear. It kinda sucked to not live here offically anymore.

  “Jesus, Mick.”

  “Like it?” the raven-haired grinned, opening the fridge to find the alcohol and grabbing a couple glasses. He gestured to the seat opposing his own, before wandering off back to the kitchen to get the plates of food for them. Ian sat, still impressed and in awe of his sweetheart of a lover, leaning up to kiss him softly as the plates were set down, then Mickey was across from him.

  “I love it,” he grinned, picking up his knife and fork to start to eat. Where Mickey found out his favourite food was lasagna, he had no idea. It didn’t even really matter, aside from the fact that the thought meant a lot, as he looked over to find Mickey still watching him with his bright eyes and hopeful little smile. “I love you,” he finished, forking a piece of lasagna into his mouth afterwards, almost moaning around the fork. He had no idea Mickey could cook so well! Holy shit. “Fuck, Mickey! This is amazing!”

  The older man blushed and shrugged it off, modestly, before digging into his own. Yeah, it was pretty amazing, he guessed, pleasantly surprised with himself for pulling it off. More so, glad that Ian liked it. This was, after all, all for Ian, much like everything else Mickey had done. He should start saying he loved him more often, because he really did. If this little date thing couldn’t prove that blatantly, he wasn’t quite sure what would. 

  They continued to eat and drink with cheesy small talk, and a short discussion of Ian’s day at work, how he deliberately spelt names wrong just to see people laugh — the fuckin’ angel he was — and him casually mentioning how happy he was to see Mickey’s texts throughout the day. The thing with Ian was: he _could_ casually say that shit and not have it be a big deal or sound weird. Mickey had yet to master that, since when he tried, it sounded strained and uneasy. It was alright, though, Ian could do the other small cutesy gestures for the pair of them. 

  After lasagna, Mickey set up the TV with a more high definition Van Damme movie than the shitty priated collection they had, letting Ian sit down to watch it start while he put dishes away and prepared popcorn for them. He came back with the bowl and sat down, propping his feet up and offering it to Ian. By the time the movie was reaching it’s credits, Mickey had managed to curl up into Ian and feel little kisses to his head while they lay together. It was warm and comfortable, legs tangled at the other end of the couch, bowl of popcorn only a bowl of kernels now, feeling more comfortable than smart in his shirt than he had. 

  “Mick?”

  “Aye?”

  “Thank you. For this.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed with a smile. “I wanted to make you happy, y’know. Makin’ lasagna and all.”

  “It was sweet. You’re far too good to me,” the Gallagher hummed, nuzzling into Mickey’s neck. The words made a warmth seep into Mickey’s heart, even if he didn’t personally believe. He pulled back to kiss him, longer than their other ones, tattooed hand coming up to feel the shaved red hair on the back of his lover’s head while their mouths worked together, eyes fluttered closed until the pair pulled away just barely for Mickey to respond;

  “Nah. Nothin’ will ever be good enough for you. I know I ain’t good for words, so don’t go expectin’ a fuckin’ speech, but we’ve been through shit. You deserved at least one good night, with me. Hell, I wish I could give you more than this. I love you.”

  Eyes glistening in that way that reminded Mickey of the look he’d gotten when they were very young, fucking in the back freezer, Ian was grinning. He absolutely loved hearing those three words, after only heard them in bad situations and times, and could never get enough of the way Mickey would say them. So vulnerably, yes, but holding so much truth and adoration that was hard to find in the Milkovich. “This is perfect. All of it. The food, the movie, you. I love you, too. So fuckin’ much, Mickey.”

  After their lips connected again, both males smiling into it, Mickey’s head whirring with all the love he had for this tall ginger boy, Mickey was wondering how they’d never been on a date before. 

**Author's Note:**

> listen,, im so short on inspiration or prompts that i could turn into something decent. im new to archive, and wanna get into it so would appreciate ideas for one shots if any !! xo j


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